Need help guys! Hard drive problem!

[Siobhan21uk]

Hey guys, I'm in serious need of help!

 

A few weeks ago I removed my 2nd hard drive from my PC. It was just used to store pics/vids/work.

 

Today I re connected it and booted up, but the drive wasn't showing in my computer. It also took about 2 minutes for the computer to boot (it hung in the vista boot window, the one with the little green line going from left to right).

 

I've gone into computer management > disk management, and it is showing up there. I've gave it a new letter, S, and it now shows in My Computer. However, when i click it, it says I must format the drive before I can access it.

 

I have so many photo's, video's and university work on there, I really cannot lose this stuff.

 

Can anyone offer any help as to what I should do?

 

Thanks

 

Siobhan x

[maynardvdm]

Hi

 

Welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help.

 

I deleted your post in the Vista thread because it is the same. We will stick to this thread for this problem.

 

Does the hard drive show in BIOS? Is it IDE or SATA?

[Siobhan21uk]

Oh ok, I wasn't sure which one to post in.

 

Yes it is showing in the BIOS, it's IDE.

 

Thanks for the speedy reply

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Can I ask why you changed the drive letter Siobhan?

[Siobhan21uk]

Can I ask why you changed the drive letter Siobhan?

 

Well the drive was originaly called "Siobhan's stuff", but when I re connected it and found it wasn't there, and went to disk management - it didn't have a letter, so I just picked S. I was told by a friend that if I change the letter, it will appear in My Computer. Which it has, just not able to get in to it.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Have a read of this Siobahn

 

http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/articles-and-tutorials/2388-take-ownership-file-folder-windows-xp.html

[Siobhan21uk]

Have a read of this Siobahn

 

http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/articles-and-tutorials/2388-take-ownership-file-folder-windows-xp.html

 

Thanks, I read over it but it doesn't really help I'm affraid.

 

It tells you to right click > properties > security... but the properties of this drive doesn't have a security tab.

 

EDIT: I'm using Windows Vista Ultimate, not XP

Edited May 29, 2008 by Siobhan21uk

[Guest Wolfeymole]

The drive should have been found when you connected it Siobahn, can I ask if this drive contained an operating system at all?

Try changing it back to the original drive name and get back to us.

[Tony D]

This is strange. Have you restarted your comptuer with the 2nd drive attached? it may come up.

[Siobhan21uk]

The drive should have been found when you connected it Siobahn, can I ask if this drive contained an operating system at all?

Try changing it back to the original drive name and get back to us.

 

Yes it used to contain an operating system, but I've used it since then just for files and it's worked fine. I'm not sure if the OS was removed, i just used it for files.

 

I cannot rename the file using right click, it says I must first format. I can only change the device letter using disk management, but it does nothing.

[Siobhan21uk]

This is strange. Have you restarted your comptuer with the 2nd drive attached? it may come up.

 

Yes I've tried this many times, no luck

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Do you get a choice of Operating System on boot up Siobahn?

[Dalo Harkin]

Siobahn, when you went into disk management did you activate the disk or just give it a drive letter?

to activte you need to right click on where it says DISK 0 or 1 whichever is the one with the big black line next to it and then click activate disk and should thenbe recognisable in my computer - if not come back and let us know pls

[Siobhan21uk]

Do you get a choice of Operating System on boot up Siobahn?

 

Yes I used to, they both said windows XP, since then, I upgraded to vista on my main drive and kept the other one for files.

[Siobhan21uk]

Siobahn, when you went into disk management did you activate the disk or just give it a drive letter?

to activte you need to right click on where it says DISK 0 or 1 whichever is the one with the big black line next to it and then click activate disk and should thenbe recognisable in my computer - if not come back and let us know pls

 

Yes I activated it, and then it appeared in my computer but still needed to be formatted to be accessed. I then gave it a letter to see if that would help, but it never.

[Siobhan21uk]

I've taken a screen shot...

 

http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/2979/31553073xs5.jpg

 

Can you make anything out from this?

[RandyL]

A quick question. Why did you previously remove the drive? Was it giving you any problems?

[Siobhan21uk]

A quick question. Why did you previously remove the drive? Was it giving you any problems?

 

I kept on getting the blue screen of death, so I took a few things out to try get to the problem. Turns out I had a bad stick of RAM. I just didnt get round to puttin the hard drive bak in

[Dalo Harkin]

Have you set this second drive to slave as it used to be master?

[Siobhan21uk]

Have you set this second drive to slave as it used to be master?

 

Yes.

 

The main hard drive is set as Primary Master

 

The hard drive which isn't working is Primary Slave

 

And the CD Drive is Secondary Slave.

 

Is this as it should be?

 

Thanks for all the help so far, I'll be sure to make a donation as soon as we get to the bottom of this :)

[Dalo Harkin]

So you are using 2 seperate IDE cables?

 

1st one is the main HDD (working) as master

2nd one is the secong HDD (not working)

 

and a seperate IDE cable with just a CD drive on?

 

The HDD's are getting main power from the PSU and I mean not any pss through cables for fans etc?

[Siobhan21uk]

So you are using 2 seperate IDE cables?

 

1st one is the main HDD (working) as master

2nd one is the secong HDD (not working)

 

and a seperate IDE cable with just a CD drive on?

 

The HDD's are getting main power from the PSU and I mean not any pss through cables for fans etc?

 

The 2 hard drives are using the same IDE cable, it has 2 ends on it if you know what I mean?

 

The CD drive is using it's own IDE cable.

 

Both HDD's are using normal power cables straight from the PSU

[Dalo Harkin]

I can not think of any scenario as to why this is happening other than a fault with the HDD if it is there are the drive has a letter all should be fine. - have you set the pins on the back off the HDD too?

[Siobhan21uk]

Yes the jumpers have been set to slave

[Tony D]

The computer is recognizing the drive. That tells me the cabling and jumper setting are good. For some reason, the drive is not recognized as a formatted disk. Maybe time for something like HD Regenerator. I'm certaintly no expert on this so I turn to other for their advice.